Re: While studying CS

From: CTips (ctips_at_bestweb.net)
Date: 09/29/04 

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 17:48:52 -0400

Mark wrote:
> What should one put emphasis on while studying computer science to get a
> better job(career) after graduating?
>
> - to have good grades (directly reflects one's inteligence and even more
> willingnes to learn and work)
> - to get some recommendations by professors (shows specialization in a
> certain field)
> - to make some interresting software (shows self-initiative, creativity,
> specialization in a certain field)
> - to work part-time in a company (a real-world experiece)
>
> .. or something else, considering that a day has 24 hours and that one is
> just a common mortal.
>
> I wouldn't like to start any flames, but all opinions are welcome.
> Thank you.
>
>

The best-paying job that I know that a C.S. undergrad got was a 6 figure
job + bonus as some kind of security trader/analyst at a major
stock-brokers, in the very early 90s. He was personally recruited by the
CEO. How did he get the job? He was the president of the undergraduate
investment club at the university, and their stock portfolio
outperformed the S&P 500 by some huge margin using stocks with about 1/2
the volatility of the S&P 500 .

A couple of undergrads landed great jobs with ILM or Pixar based on a
superb senior year graphics project. They partly lucked out in that the
professor for the course (or maybe their advisor) had some people from
the company over to look at the projects. Rumor has it that they also
pulled a couple of C's because of the effort they put into it.

You've got to ask yourself:
- what are you good at?
- how smart are you?
- what do you want to do?
- what are your goals?

What you should do depends a lot on your answers to the questions above.

Here is what I would want if I were hiring an undergrad:
- have you taken 500 & 600 level courses, particularily for
data-structures and algorithms?
- did you take project-heavy systems courses? In particular, I'd be
looking for
   o operating-systems
   o compilers
   o computer graphics
If they don't have a large project requirement, I'd suggest you take the
500 or 600 level course instead. If they had an optional project, and
you didn't take it, I'd probably rule you out on the spot.

Note the emphasis on grad level courses. Undergrad CS is pretty
light-weight stuff, intellectually. About the only course I can remember
that was particularily heavy was Theory of Computation. This is my
personal opinion, and you're free to take it with a pinch of salt. I
remember going through the O.S. book in about a couple of hour [the one
with multiple dinosaurs on it] and not finding much content. In C.S.,
most 500/600 level courses don't require too much background, and you
should be able to substitute a 500/600 for an undergrad course.

- what math/OR courses did you take? In particular, I'd be looking for
   o linear algebra
   o graph theory
   o discrete math
   o numerical analysis
   o queuing theory or something similar

- what EE courses did you take? In particular, if you had a course where
  you had a project to synthesize a design to an FPGA that would be a
major plus.

- Did you do anything noticeable? One of the few undergrads I
recommended hiring worked on the Robot Football team at his college.

Your grades, of course, are important, but not critical. The school you
went to is way more important than the grades.

You aren't going to get the kind of recommendations from your profs that
get you hired into upwardly mobile jobs unless you do something other
than get good grades. I've seen too many "X was a student in my class.
Did great. Got an A+. Is a hard worker, will be a good fit" kind of
letters. Its pretty obvious that the prof doesn't remember you, and
based his letter exclusively on the grade.

Interesting software is a _MAJOR_ plus. Except it takes a _lot_ of
effort to make interesting software.

Interning in a company is useful if you want to get a job in that
company, or if the company really is doing something interesting. If you
have "interned at company XYZ", there are two questions I'm going to ask:
o why don't you have a job offer from them?
o (your reference at that company) why didn't you make him/her an offer?
Also, most undergrad jobs are kind of ho-hum, experience-wise. It is
hard to get the kinds of jobs that would really make a big impression.
In fact, you almost have to do something outstanding to get offered one
of those jobs.

I think a good summary would be: to get hired, you have to stand out.
The more you look like a star, the more likely you are to get hired into
something interesting.

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